NBA Owners and Players Hold 16-Hour Negotiating Session

NBA Owners and Players Hold 16-Hour Negotiating Session

Players and owners weren't able to reach a deal on a collective bargaining agreement after a marathon negotiating session with a federal mediator.

Published October 19, 2011

(Photo: AP Photo/David Karp)

Representatives from the NBA Players Association and the NBA teams are set to meet later Wednesday to continue their talks in hopes of saving the season and ending the lockout that started July 1.

The two sides met for 16 hours in New York on Tuesday in their first bargaining session with a federal mediator. No deal was announced, but with another meeting planned for today there's hope that both sides are moving toward common ground.

The owners had previously said Tuesday was the deadline to get a deal done or that more games would be lost from the schedule. The first two weeks of the regular season have already been canceled. Commissioner David Stern has stated that games all the way through Christmas could be in jeopardy.

The NBA Players Association executive committee, led by Derek Fisher, and the owners’ labor relations committee began meeting at 10 a.m. Tuesday and did not leave the session until 2 a.m. Wednesday morning. At the request of mediator George Cohen, neither side issued a comment.

The owners are expected to meet separately later Wednesday to discuss revenue sharing among the 32 teams. That is something the players have wanted from the start, although Stern has said the notion of revenue sharing could not be accurately dealt with until a new collective bargaining agreement is on the table.

The two sides are primarily at odds over revenue distribution and the issue of some kind of hard salary cap. The owners want the players to accept a huge step down from the 57 percent cut of the revenue they had under the previous agreement. The owners also want a more restrictive salary cap, which the players want no part of.